Basic info... I bought my 02 954rr back in March. It had 17k on it. It now has 20k. I have done no maintenance work on it yet (other than chain lube after long rides).

I know my chain need to be tightened, easy enough...

Both front and rear brakes are starting to squeak. Opinions on type of pads I should get (Sintered/Kevlar) and brand preference?

Also, when should I do a coolant flush and brake fluid flush?

Opinions and advise greatly appreciated.

Also, should I do this work before I put it into storage, or as soon as I take it out next riding season?

 

i have double H sintered pads.... but i'll be buying just the reg. organic pads next. you can get the organic pads off of fleabay. i can't ride hard enough on the streets to see the benefits of the double H sintered. if i was on the track, i'd probably stick with them though.

if you're replacing the bads, clean the pistons in the caliper. use soapy water. it'll be easy and your new pads will sit evenly on the rotor. i would bleed the brakes, but if you're done for the season, i'd wait until next season. you can do it now, it won't hurt, but there is a possibility that you could gain a lil moisture over the winter - and that'd lower your boiling point. you don't need to run really expensive brake fluid. DO NOT RUN DOT5, but you can run DOT5.1 if you really want to - its expensive and it wouldn't help you until you were racing, so i'd recommend running the regular brake fluid you get from napa or autozone.

take off your coolant cap and look inside. if its rusty, go ahead and flush the coolant now. that means you have too much water in your system. you should flush with coolant/antifreeze because it'll be fine over the winter - AND it'll have rust preventative agents in it.

if your coolant looks nice and green now and it looks nice and non rusty, i'd just leave it. if the bike is warming up and cooling down fine, i'd just leave it. it needs to be changed every 2 years or so - its your call on that stuff.

change the oil and filter before you put it away

 

all good advice. i run dot 4 brake fluid, ATE super blue racing brake fluid. brakes feel much better and more responsive. (even in the car!). it has a higher boiling point, which reduces fade. bleed it through... when fluid comes out clean blue, you know you got all the old stuff out.

 

I want to do a cooling system flush on my 954 but dont know how

 

do you have a service manual? if not, download one.

its pretty easy. take out drain bolt (here is a little trick. keep the radiator cap on until the overflow tank is almost empty. then remove the cap) you may need to remove a fairing. i used a piece of plastic to channel it out without removing the fairing. if your coolant is really bad or your switching to a specialty coolant of a different color, fill it with water and run it until the fan comes on to circulate it. ride it if you can. then drain it again. repeat until its only clear water coming out, then fill with new stuff. if your coolant is not that bad and your using the same coolant, doing the "flush" is your choice. don't forget to test or replace the cap and fill the bottle to the full mark.

 

So i dont need to remove any radiator hose ??

 

nope. the drain bolt is lower than the hoses. its on the water pump.

 

Kool thks

 

I would remove the radiator hoses and flush the radiator with a hose after running clean water through it; the reason I say this is because after I emptied the coolant ran cleaner and everthing else, there was still a lot of nasty crap that came out even after just draining it. A lot of nasty crap sits at the bottom of things.